Here’s what’s been removed so far:

• Beer/Wine/Liquor Room
• Inside Bar
• Porch Room (Fireplace Room)
• North Deck
• Outside Bar
• Dry Bar
• Hostess Area
• Kitchen
• Indoor Bathrooms
• Inside Dining Room

Left Standing for Possible Re-Use:

• Center Deck
• South Deck
• Outside Bathrooms
• Dish Washing Room
• Cooler
• Freezer

Thank You to A&I and the very dedicated Dead Dog staff that are helping tear down the old building.  They have made tremendous progress for 9 days out from the fire.  Another post will be coming tomorrow morning with location, time and cost of the Employee Relief Benefit.  The silent auction info will also be posted sometime early morning

Made some serious head way today.  Nearly the entire portion fire damaged building has been removed with just a small section on the south side of the building left standing.  Some parts of the building are salvageable so we’ll have to remove the rest of the building piece by piece instead of pulling it down one wall at a time.

Busy day planned for tomorrow.  Meeting with the county to get an initial approval on the site plan for the new building then a late morning meeting with the master arborist and demolition until we have all of the damaged building removed.

PGA Tour Pro, Dead Dog friend and family friend of Englis & Warren Gover, Bill Haas, has donated two signed flags for the Dead Dog Saloon Employee Relief Benefit.   First, a flag with the signatures of every American and International player from this year’s president’s cup.  The flag has a certificate of authentication and protective case.  Second, a flag with Bill’s signature from the 2011 Tour Championship and a certificate of authenticity.  Both are pictured below and you will be able to bid on these items starting tomorrow.  If you’d like to bid come back to http://www.deaddogsaloon.com for more info.  Thank you very much to Bill Haas from everyone at Dead Dog.

Congratulations to Elise Testone for making the top 12 on American Idol.  We’ll be following her every week and early indications are that she’s one of the favorites

P.S.   Sometimes I write these posts just before I go to bed.  You can usually tell how hard I worked that day and how tired I am by how many spelling and grammar mistakes I make.  Based on that last sentence I may have been sleeping when I wrote last night’s post.  Please excuse any past and future writing mistakes.

Can’t believe it’s only been a week since the fire, feels like a lifetime.

There may be a glimmer of hope for the live oak tree.  A master arborist has been contracted to come to Dead Dog and do numerous tests to see if the tree has a chance.  If there’s even the slightest chance that the tree is savable we will do anything in our power to bring it back to life.

In some non fire/construction news one of Dead Dog’s own has made it to the final 24 on American Idol.  Elise Testone, a regular performer at Dead Dog Saloon for the last couple years, performed tonight in the first live show for the girls.  She seemed to be Steven Tyler’s favorite female performer so we’re hoping that America will vote her through.  If you’d like to vote for Elise follow this link http://www.americanidol.com/vote/ and vote for Elise.  Congratulations from everyone at Dead Dog Saloon!!!

Today will be the last day you will see the charred remains of the old Dead Dog building.  We are taking down the upstairs office and demolishing the kitchen and should be down to foundation and flooring by Thursday afternoon.

Removed the remainder of the inside bar and walk-in bar cooler, which were only 1 and 2 years old repectively.  Also discarded of the rest of the outside bar, also only 2 years old.  It gets depressing at times thinking about the amount of work that went into improving Dead Dog over the past few years, much of which done by our own employees.  The Marshwalk in front of Dead Dog should be reopen on Thursday morning barring any unforseen events.  Another shot from the front parking lot. 

Took the Marshwalk picture from a slightly different vantage point this evening so everyone could get a better idea of the scope of demolition that has taken place in the last two days.

Working on the water everyday you sometimes take for granted your surroundings.  This picture was taken this afternoon from the Marshwalk just outside of Dead Dog.

In a photo taken on the day of the fire this statue, which was used as a doorstop, was badly scorched and half buried in ash.  We managed to recover it and get it fairly clean.  The person who took the photo posted it the day after the fire with the title “Project Phoenix:  The Dead Dog Will Rise Again”.  From this day forward we will be calling the construction phase Project Phoenix.

Demolition has been moving forward quickly, the deck around the oak tree has been removed along with most of the inside bar, outside bar and porch room (room with the fireplace).  Here’s the view from parking lot, it’s been almost 21 years since you could see the inlet from the front steps.

I’m posting two panoramas today, first of the view from the inside bar…

and the view from the marshwalk.

As we enter the design phase of the rebuild we’d love to hear what your favorite part of Dead Dog was.  To make a post click ‘view comments’ just below this post.

Two photos taken from the marshwalk within 3 hours of each other.

A little manual labor to break up the monotony of talking to contractors, architects and insurance companies.  Started making some progress today with the demolition of the building.  Took down the roof over the center deck and the canopy at the front entrance.   We were able to recover some pieces of the outside bar top which we are thinking about having engraved and auctioning off during the Employee Relief Benefit and 9/11 Benefit. Taking the day off tomorrow before 4 months of continuous work to hopefully get open by this summer.

Found a couple of plaques from the 9/11 wall.  They are badly burned but readable.  Thank you to A&I for recovering them for us!

The tremendous outpouring of support from the Murrells Inlet community continues with the announcement of a benefit for the employees of Dead Dog Saloon.  Gary Johnson, head golf pro of the newly renovated Island Green Golf Club and Mickey Calderiso, owner of On the 1/2 Shell, say a benefit is scheduled for March 25th.  100% of proceeds will go to the Dead Dog employees and their families.

Stay tuned for updates on location and time of event.

Part of the upstairs was knocked down today in preparation for the severe storm that’s happening as I type this.  We’ve gotten almost all the Dead Dog stuff out that we can.  Waiting on the all clear to begin removing the building next week.

Some sad news today, after talking with our arborist it was his expert opinion that we are going to have to cut down the live oak tree that our deck was built around.  I know many people have fond memories of this tree and if you’d like to share them with us please send an email with your story or pictures to dudley@deaddogsaloon.com.

Thanks to John Livingston for this picture of Dead Dog in all its glory.

Pictures from the Marshwalk side of the restaurant will be taken daily so everyone can see our progress. This picture was taken during the afternoon yesterday, about 12 hours after the fire. All focus is on moving forward and getting Dead Dog rebuilt as quickly as we can.

We are hoping that the live oak that rose through the deck on the Creek Ratz side of the restaurant will make it. Estimates on the age of the tree have been as high as 300 years old. Early indications are that it may have a chance. Have an arborist coming out to look at it tomorrow, hoping he’ll have good news.

A&I Fire & Water Restoration has been salvaging whatever they can from the building. Lots of smoke and water damage from everything that wasn’t completely taken by fire. The armoir on the right wall in the front entrance was completely destroyed along with all the memorial pictures that so many dog owner’s have sent in throughout the years. If you had a picture in Dudley’s Graveyard or would like to add a picture of your lost but not forgotten best friend you can send a 5×7 (or smaller) framed picture to:

Dead Dog Saloon
4079 Hwy 17 Business
Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

Fire gutted most of the building and a good portion of our deck this morning. Flames were reported at approximately 4am Wednesday morning with Georgetown County Firefighters arriving on the scene within five minutes. Plans to rebuild are already underway and we will re-open as soon as possible. Regular updates will be posted on this website with rebuilding pictures and reopening plans.

Our deepest gratitude goes out to the Marshwalk restaurants for their overwhelming show of support and we are especially greatful that no firefighters were injured while extinguishing the blaze.

We will be back, bigger and better than ever. Our spirit lives on.

Please contact us at dudley@deaddogsaloon.com with any questions you may have.